El Paso County sees sharp rise in early voters for 2026 midterm primary

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The 2026 midterm primary elections had their early voting period end on Friday, February 27th. El Paso County voters have shown up in near record numbers this year.

The early voting numbers are much higher than the Presidential primary in 2024 and the last midterm primary in 2022.

In 2022, there were just over 31,000 early voting ballots cast. In 2024, that number was lower at just under 30,000. For this year, it's at over 54,000, nearly matching the final election numbers for both 2022 and 2024.

El Paso County elections administrator Lisa Wise said that a number of factors can contribute to the rise.

"It could be media coverage, are contested races on the ballot? How hard the parties and candidates really get out there and push for what they want, what they have on the ballot," said Wise. "As long as that's happening, you're going to see a bumped interest."

ABC-7 will have the full story on the increased election numbers tonight on ABC-7 at 10.